Some Differences Between Cats and Dogs

This is a re-post of a blog entry written soon after we brought Lucy home in January 2007. The original posting was on my "old" Blog.  It's a piece I enjoyed writing and, ten years later, it still relatively accurately sums up my thoughts on some differences between cats and dogs.  

Mrs B

July 1, 2017

Now that I own a dog (Lucy), I've been in a few positions (get your  minds out of the gutter) with regards to observing some significant differences between cats and dogs when it comes to their bodily functions.

First, the obvious.  Cats do their "business" in a cat box.  They do not like to be observed while doing this and (generally) will bury their evidence.  Dogs, on the other hand, let it all hang out and do their "business" in front of anyone and everyone who happens to be around.  They don't bury it (although they might sniff it or do a half-hearted back foot kick over it (if another dog is around)).

Eating.  For the most part, cats are fairly dainty.  They USUALLY won't scarf down their entire bowl of dry food in 30 seconds flat (although to be fair, Clyde does sometimes eat too much too fast and barfs it right back up).  Editorial comment from 2017:  So do Lily and Apollo.  Dogs eat their food right then and there.  In fact, I read that it's not a good idea to let them leave any food in their bowl because that is what an "alpha" animal does (the implication being that, because they are "alpha", they can leave food and no one will touch it).  If you want to be "alpha" in your house, don't let your dog do this.  Editorial comment from 2017:  Lucy had a food aggression and so we were not able to leave any food out for her.  Not that she would have left any food out in the first place.  Hesed, on the other hand, does not chow down all of her food at once, nor does she appear to care if one of the cats strolls by and takes a munch).  Don't bother worrying about picking up your cat's food if s/he leaves some as they are and always will be "alpha" in your life.

Barfing.  You know when a cat is about to hurl because it gives you plenty of advance notice by going through an elaborate process of making loud up-chuck noises.  They must start this about 5 minutes before they have to let it out because if you try to chase a cat off a carpet while it is doing this, it will run away from you and wait to heave until it's back on the carpet (one exception to this being sometimes when you chase the cat, it elects to projectile puke while running madly about the house, so rather than having one pile to clean up, there are now about thirty).  Dogs just hurl.  There are no preliminaries.  One second they are sitting there minding their own business, the next, about twenty gallons of stomach contents are all over the floor (or  the backseat of your car, or, if you are exceedingly unlucky, YOU).

Odors.  As much as I love cats, I've gotta give the gold star to the pooches in this category. In general, their fluids (note we are not discussing poop) do not smell as bad as cat odors. Dog pee, although there is typically a lot more of it, smells like not much because they drink so much more water.  We all know what cat pee smells like, and how hard it is to get rid of the smell once it's in your carpet.  Ditto with cat barf dog barf.  It is harder to clean up and it stinks.  Dog barf, although resembling some mutant alien creature, hardly smells and it mops right up.

So, there are a lot of differences.  About the only similarity I've discovered so far is that cat poop and dog poop and cat farts and dog farts smell equally bad.  Editorial comment from 2017:  No change here!

Florida Homeowners AND Residents

We successfully closed on our new house Wednesday afternoon! Yey! The moving van should arrive in an hour or so and we'll begin THAT process.

The dog is with her grandparents in Ocala and the cats are in a Residence Inn about 15 minutes from our new house. They are starting to get on one another's (and our) nerves. Keeping a kitty litter box in a closet ain't much fun.

Had a bit of a scare coming down I75 Tuesday afternoon; a hard rubber thingie came flying out of nowhere (probably fell off the back of someone's work truck), went under the car I was driving, flew out behind me, went over one lane and smacked right into the windshield of the car Mr. B was driving. Thankfully, it hit in the middle, not on the driver's side and doubly thankfully, Mr. B is cool under pressure.

If this had happened Wednesday, our FL insurance would have covered it free of charge. Since it happened Tuesday (when we were still under NC), our crappy NC insurance did not cover it so we are out $260. But, really, since it could have been far, far worse, we're not really complaining. It's already been replaced.

Anyway, other than this, everything's worked out okay so far (well, we're a bit irked at Allied but that's another story, maybe).

Here are a few pictures from our journey (so far). More to come!

Oh, BTW, the Internet in our new house is WICKED fast! Woot!

Mrs. B

Monster moving van outside our "old" house.

One last picture in front of our "old" house.

Mrs. B and Mom. Don't cry!

Pete at a Red Roof Inn in Hardeeville, SC (about five hours from Durham).

Lucy's an old pro at this traveling thing.

Lily is unperturbed by it all. Time to eat.

Athena was actually not hiding.

Apollo looking handsome with his tag.

Ares. Before he started howling.

Scary!

Looks worse from this view.

Apollo hanging at the Residence Inn in Sarasota.

Time to chill out, Ares.

Lily decided Pete's crate made a nice bunk.

Four of the five (Lily's in the crate).

Happy FL homeowners 8.17.11

Why Do We Love Cats (When They Don't Care)?

My FIL sent me this real interesting (but not surprising, at least to me) article about how (house) cats have probably got the final laugh on us humans. Here we go, thinking we've tamed them, turned them into these domesticated pets, and, what has actually been going on is they've tamed/trained US.

You can read the article now by clicking here.

Anyone who shares their life with a cat probably knows this to be true.

One of the things that struck me as intriguing is the stuff about what we'll let cats get away with that, in all likelihood, we'd never let our dogs do.

Case in point. Lucy the dog was laying on the rug in front of the kitchen sink yesterday afternoon while I was roasting bell peppers. She lays there all the time, usually when she is hoping the person who is preparing dinner might toss her something (this even though we've not tossed her a damn thing (in the house, other than ice) since she almost bit Lily's head off this past April). I must have told her five times yesterday to get out of my way while nudging her when I went over to do something at the sink.

About an hour later, Ares decided he was going to take a nap on that same rug. Both Mr. B and I were straddling the rug when we needed to go to the sink, God knows we couldn't disturb Little Butt Head (Pete is Big Butt Head). Ok, so, admittedly, our cats can be "Butt Heads" and yet we kow-tow to them. I pointed out to Mr. B that we were trying our hardest to not disturb Ares; he said, "But he's sleeping and he looks so cute".

Up to fairly recently, I always thought Mr. B was a dog person, too :-)

Seriously, he does like dogs, of course he does. He's owned dogs for almost his entire adult life. However, come to find out, he also enjoys cats. It was his ex-wife who hated them; saying they were dirty things (Mr. B said she was afraid of them). One more strike against her, in my opinion (although she did once run over and kill someone's dog (while they were walking it, I might add, so who knows?))

I digress.

Anyway, was Ares manipulating us? Maybe not at that point in time (he was asleep) but, I'm pretty sure all four of them try their best to get what they want by looking cute, sounding sweet, meowing, chirping, purring, etc. The dog, well, she just licks us. Something I can't stand, BTW.

This article points out that we let cats do stuff to us/put up with their antics similar to how we may have let an old boyfriend, girlfriend, spouse, etc. (or maybe more than one) walk all over us at one point in our lives.

So, this begs the question of why some people prefer cats to dogs (and vice versa).

Which got me to thinking about the difference in personalities between "dog people" and "cat people" (we all know already what the difference in personalities is, typically, between dogs and cats!)

I've always believed that a person who preferred dogs was the type of person who desired unconditional love and, for the most part, constant companionship. Not to mention dedication, loyalty and a true-hearted friend.

NOT BAD DESIRES! LET ME PREFACE THE FOLLOWING WITH THAT RIGHT NOW!

People who prefer cats might not want all that in your face love but, rather, something more subtle, and, yes, maybe challenging. THEY want to be the ones to provide the unconditional love but not all the time. Meaning, cats don't require quite as much attention and care.

Now, what about people who have BOTH cats and dogs? Where do we stand?

Seriously conflicted, I think. But, we've definitely got our bases covered!

Mrs. B

Cats And Dogs And (Potential) Choices

Ever since I reported about Lucy attacking Lily and our conclusion that, if Lucy did it again we'd probably have to find her another home, I have to say I've been getting a little bit of flack from people; namely over WHY we'd get rid of LUCY and not the cats.

First off, let me say that it is probably not going to be an issue because, at least as far as we can tell since letting Lucy back into the house Sunday, all is going well. She's been on her best behavior and both of the cats are almost back to where they were with her before this happened (cuddling with her, rubbing up against her, giving kisses, climbing all over her, grooming her, etc.) I even saw Lily walk past Lucy last evening and give her a rub up; albeit, a quick one.

I've thought about the various reactions I've received and think they are definitely falling into either the cat camp or the dog camp. Remember that movie, "Cats and Dogs"? Well, if you've not seen it, you can chose, when watching the DVD, to be either on the cat's side or the dog's side, thus dictating for the course of the movie which animal is the evil one (I've watched both versions; it's really cute, you should rent it and watch it if you haven't done so already).

Anyway. From the cat lovers I've heard that we'll need to be extra vigilant and consider giving Lucy away if she does it again; after all, she's a lot bigger and she could kill them, intentionally or unintentionally, but, the result would be the same (then, of course, we'd have to give her away, anyway, because who could live with a pet that's killed another one of your pets?) Yes, very dramatic.

From the dog lovers, I've heard that it's possible Lily provoked Lucy (you know how sneaky cats can be; always trying to get the dog into trouble) and that why would we give Lucy away and not the cats? You've only had the cats five months and have had Lucy over two years. How is THAT fair?

Obviously, there are points to be made for either side.

But, for us, it comes down to this.

First of all, I'm pretty much 100% certain that what caused Lucy to attack Lily was my leaving that chewie in sight on the patio (believe me, I still feel awful about that). Lucy was obsessing about it and the fact she couldn't get it and couldn't possibly understand when Lily strolled over to the door that Lily couldn't get to it, either. Not that this made it okay for her to bite Lily.

Given how often I've seen the cats climbing on Lucy and such, I doubt even if Lily HAD swiped her with her claws, that Lucy would have reacted in that manner. Add to it the ONLY times we HAVE seen Lucy behave this way was over food or chewies, well, the argument that Lily INTENTIONALLY provoked her is weak.

Chances are that we'll not ever have this issue again because we will ensure Lucy is not put into a situation where she'll react this way (over food/chewies). We've taken my brother's recommendation and will, from now on, feed her outside (good weather) or in the sunroom with the door shut (bad weather). And, sorry to say for her, no more chewies. Ever.

However, if, even given these restrictions she DOES attack one of the cats again, then, chances are there would be a serious problem with Lucy and her temperament. I'd forever worry about them, her, and, God-forbid, what if she went further one day and attacked one of my nieces or nephews? Right now, there is absolutely no reason to believe she'd do that. But, if she attacked one of the cats for no reason, or, a swipe or a hiss; who is to say what she might do to a small child pulling on her eyes, tail, or stepping on her paw?

That, really, is the primary reason why we decided she'd have to go if she got out of line again. Cats or no cats, we'll always have children around. They come first.

And, obviously, what sort of life would she have, assuming we kept her but kept her outside or locked up in the sunroom all the time? SHE'D be better off (under those circumstances) with a family where she can be involved and loved; probably one with no other pets and no children. Maybe an older couple or a single guy or, who knows. It probably won't come to this, but, if it did, I'd want LUCY to be happy, too.

Finally, to address the question of why not get rid of Pete and Lily? It's simple. They've done nothing wrong. They have every bit as much of a right to be here as Lucy does. We love them, just as we love Lucy. Certainly, if something happened such that it would be BETTER for Pete and Lily to go to new homes, we'd have to think about it. But, again, the only reason we'd give Lucy to a new home (I say this rather than "get rid of her" or "give her away" to reinforce that we'd ensure she had a new HOME, and a good one at that) is if she attacked one of them again, which would led us to the conclusion that she needed to be in a home with no other pets and probably no children.

Ok, I'm rambling and maybe I'm feeling a tad defensive. Excuse me for that, please.

If you've been reading my Blog, you know how much Lucy and I have been through together, our ups and downs, and how much I love her. Believe me, we have her best interests at heart, too.

Mrs. B